It is the first week of my first year in college, and my professor has assigned a reading, Navigating Genres, by Kerry Dirk. Subsequently, each student is to write a 250 word response to the reading. This is my first tangible college assignment. It’s a daunting task, especially for someone whose first language isn’t even English, but I really should submit something, right? Right.

Step 1: Stress. Stress over all the possible things that might go wrong. What if I write 251 words? Or 249? What if the internet crashes as I try to submit my piece? What if I’m not supposed to write in first person?

Step 2: Now that I’m done stressing, maybe, (just maybe), I should actually start reading Navigating Genres. Should I annotate it too ? That sounds like a good idea.

Step 3: Sit and stare at a blank document. Write a few words. Delete them. Try again. Delete them again. Why does this feel so inorganic?

Step 4: Check and see if anyone else has posted their response. Try to emulate that example. Wait, isn’t this what the reading suggested I do? These are all in the same genre, right? The Age of Enlightenment isn’t quite over yet.

In her essay, Navigating Genres, the author asserts that when producing a piece of writing that falls into a particular genre, it is necessary to consider not only content, but also factors such as form, audience, and purpose in order to achieve optimal rhetorical effectiveness. The author states the convenience of genres, as they provide examples of how to model your writing after that of others in order to cater to certain purposes and audiences. Additionally, Dirk argues the importance of having a developing knowledge and profound understanding of the rules, in order to artfully deviate from them. This is necessary in order to simultaneously adhere to the conventions of a genre while producing creative and unique writing. This essay falls under the same genre as the responses of my peers, although there may be stark contrasts in tone, structure, and point of view.